12:05 Garage- ’70 Duster build
Several parts arrived for my sway bar, but still waiting on a major piece before I can start figuring out the arms.
This is the basic hardware. The flat plates are saddles for the outer tube that the bar will go in. This will bolt where the normal sway bar bushing brackets mount. These are "half splined shafts" I found online. I believe they are some type of farm equipment parts, PTO for a tractor maybe? These are 1.25" diameter with matching splined couplings.
The actual sway bar is 1.5" OD 4130 DOM tubing, .188 wall. This makes the ID 1.124". Obviously the shaft needed to be turned down to insert into the tube.
This is the saddles after I bent them.
The outer tube will be 2" diameter with a 1.76" ID. The bronze bushings will go in the ends of that, which have a 1.5" ID to match the 1.5" OD tube. The aluminum shaft collars will hold the bar in place. The 2" tube should arrive this week. Once I get that, I can mock everything up and design some arms, which will weld to the splined couplings.
So you may be wondering how I came up with this size tube. Good question. As everyone knows, I ran the torsion bar setup with many Hotchkis parts. Their bar is 1.5" x .188 tubing. I used the online Adco sway bar rate tool to determine the rate of their bar. My wheel rate should be very close to what it used to be, so I'm making this bar fairly close to that rate. I'll make my arms with a few holes to adjust it. Worse case, I make another bar with 1.5" X .145 tubing to decrease the rate.
Several parts arrived for my sway bar, but still waiting on a major piece before I can start figuring out the arms.
This is the basic hardware. The flat plates are saddles for the outer tube that the bar will go in. This will bolt where the normal sway bar bushing brackets mount. These are "half splined shafts" I found online. I believe they are some type of farm equipment parts, PTO for a tractor maybe? These are 1.25" diameter with matching splined couplings.
The actual sway bar is 1.5" OD 4130 DOM tubing, .188 wall. This makes the ID 1.124". Obviously the shaft needed to be turned down to insert into the tube.
This is the saddles after I bent them.
The outer tube will be 2" diameter with a 1.76" ID. The bronze bushings will go in the ends of that, which have a 1.5" ID to match the 1.5" OD tube. The aluminum shaft collars will hold the bar in place. The 2" tube should arrive this week. Once I get that, I can mock everything up and design some arms, which will weld to the splined couplings.
So you may be wondering how I came up with this size tube. Good question. As everyone knows, I ran the torsion bar setup with many Hotchkis parts. Their bar is 1.5" x .188 tubing. I used the online Adco sway bar rate tool to determine the rate of their bar. My wheel rate should be very close to what it used to be, so I'm making this bar fairly close to that rate. I'll make my arms with a few holes to adjust it. Worse case, I make another bar with 1.5" X .145 tubing to decrease the rate.